Let´s begin a new recap of everything that happened this week in the roller coaster that is this world of cryptocurrencies. Tighten your seatbelt because, although this is no amusement park, there are dips so steep that they can leave you breathless… and penniless.
After a week with the major cryptocurrencies rising, we all thought winter was over and even saw some old memes of bitcoiners getting rich again. But no sooner had the trading gurus started to come out of the caves they were hiding in after predicting BTC at $100K by the end of this year, than the market gave yet another sign that it is as predictable as the numbers that will come up in the lottery.
Bitcoin plummeted, touching yearly lows again and was below the $16K line. Of course, the rest of the cryptocurrencies like Solana, Matic and FTT had similar trends and fell hard. Ethereum performed in tune with the general debacle and came in below $1,100 for a few moments.
The causes of the fall were many and all of them worthy of a reality show. There were politics, betrayals, twitter fights, back and forth, mud wrestling, and… well, not so much. The issue started like every major event in the cryptocurrency world: with billionaires tweeting. Elon, enough!… What? That this time our good Elon had nothing to do with it? Sorry, it’s habit.
In this case, CZ, CEO of Binance, and Sam Bankman-Fried, of FTX, hurled accusations at each other on the social network of the little blue bird, which resulted in Binance announcing the sale of all its holdings of the FTT token “for risk management reasons”. Which caused an incredible stir in the market, which “discovered” that FTX had serious liquidity problems.
And just when it seemed that FTX would end up as LUNA and that Do Kwon was already preparing the guest room to welcome Bankman-Fried in exile, who else but CZ himself appeared as the savior of the day. Or, rather, to offer a buyout deal that would benefit their own interests and monopolize the market? users across the crypto ecosystem.
But as in every good show, you can’t miss the plot twist. When it seemed that the deal would be sealed, Binance backtracked and ended up pulling out of the purchase operation. As the Exchange announced on its official twitter account, FTX’s problems are so many that they go beyond its ability to help.
Binance had the opportunity to throw the lifeline to FTX so it wouldn’t drown, but in the end it didn’t. Why did CZ “betray” its former friend at the last minute? What made Binance bail out? What caused the deal to fall through? Obviously the speculation was not long in coming and CZ had to come out to clear up the rumors. On his twitter he stated that (unlike what we all think) he did not plan anything that happened and that this should not be seen as a victory for his Exchange (yeah, right).
Just as we were all about to start our weekend, the least surprising news of the week was not long in coming: FTX filed for bankruptcy. SBF made the decision public on his twitter, exactly 24 hours after assuring in the same media that the company was “completely liquid”. Just in case, Bankman-Fried is already consulting when the next flight to the Bahamas will depart.
Of course, a crisis like this is like a cold, once you catch one, you end up with several of them. This has been the case of BlockFi, which has momentarily stopped withdrawing funds for its clients, as a consequence of the current market situation. Celsius vibes…
And just when we thought we had seen the light at the end of the tunnel and were once again experiencing a brief moment of relief, the FTX crash brought the market back down.
We hope you’ve enjoyed this weekly recap as much as CZ has enjoyed watching FTX go to pieces. See you next week!
